Share this article

Share

4.3k shares

This was later reduced to eight years. Blackman, who described his offence as a ‘moment of madness’ remains in Erlestoke jail, in Wiltshire. He is believed to be the only British soldier to have been convicted of committing murder on a foreign battlefield.

A campaign has been launched for a review because of fundamental flaws in the way the case was conducted. A Mail investigation has revealed that:

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Sergeant Blackman's family and supporters have launched a fighting fund to support the legal costs of his appeal.

Donations will be received by a not-for-profit company, Justice For Sgt Blackman Ltd.

If there is any money left in the fund at the end of the appeal process then the money will be donated to good causes.

Blackman and his troop were at breaking point after their ‘tour from hell’ in Helmand that saw comrades tortured and killed;

His court martial was blocked from hearing about these mitigating circumstances;

A high-flying colonel resigned in protest at not being able to give mitigating evidence at the court martial.

Had Blackman been given the option of a manslaughter charge – on the basis of mitigating circumstances – it would have led to a shorter sentence.

Last night the 72-year-old mother of a vulnerable man killed in the street attacked the sentence handed to the Marine.

Pamela Young’s son Andrew, who was 40 but had a mental age of 14, died after challenging a man for cycling on the pavement. Lewis Gill punched him without warning. Gill was jailed for just four years after admitting manslaughter and could be out early next year.

Mrs Young said: ‘I have to cope with Andrew’s death for the rest of my life and he will probably only serve two years.

SIX CRIMINALS HANDED SHORTER SENTENCES THAN MARINE BLACKMAN

Four years: Lewis Gill, 21

KILLER

Lewis Gill, 21, was jailed for just four years for killing Andrew Young, 40, in an argument over cycling on the pavement in Bournemouth. His victim had Asperger’s and a mental age of 14. The sentence was upheld by the Appeal Court. He is likely to serve half of it.

Two years: Steve Clark

BRUTAL THUG

Steve Clark spent just two years in jail after kicking his girlfriend, Lisa Taylor, in the head 40 times, leaving her paralysed and brain damaged. He was given four years for GBH. He then started working in the hospital where Miss Taylor, 35, was still being treated.

Avoided jail: John Burton, 72

PAEDOPHILE

Scout volunteer John Burton, 72, escaped jail last month despite having a ‘truly abhorrent’ hoard of 60,000 child abuse images. He admitted 13 charges of possessing indecent photos of children but a judge let him walk free with a three-year community order.

16 months: Neil Hotchkiss

SAVAGE

Bouncer Neil Hotchkiss, 33, left a man permanently brain damaged with a single punch to the head in 2012 but was jailed for just 16 months. Scott Taylor, 42 and a father of three, is now disabled and in need of full-time care. Hotchkiss admitted GBH.

15 months: Michael Grieves

KILLER

Michael Grieves killed Stuart Wallis, 24, with a single punch on a nightclub dance floor in Leicester. The drunken attacker, who has a history of alcohol-related violence, was told by the judge that he may serve just 15 months for the manslaughter.

'It gives out the message that you can get away with it. It’s an unfair justice system. This Marine did a good thing and should not have been punished.

‘Sending him to prison is like imprisoning one of our boys for shooting a German in the Second World War. He’s a hero not a criminal.’

The Daily Mail launched its campaign eight days ago – and the total is still rising. Every day this week, donations and letters of support have flooded in to the Mail’s offices and via the www.justiceforsgtblackman.co.uk website.

Former Tory Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has given £50,000.

But Blackman’s team of lawyers have at least a year’s work ahead of them – and the appeal will be costly.

WHY THE BATTLE FOR JUSTICE FOR SGT BLACKMAN IS SO IMPORTANT

Sergeant Alexander Blackman – believed to be the only British serviceman ever convicted of murder on the battlefield – was locked up as a ‘political scapegoat’ for failings by top brass, say supporters.

Blackman was a highly experienced Marine destined for promotion when, on September 15, 2011, he led a patrol to check on a Taliban gunman who had been mortally wounded while attacking a British outpost in Helmand Province. It was near the end of a horror-filled tour of Afghanistan in which seven fellow Marines had been killed and 40 more injured by the Taliban.

The insurgent was found dying in a field, and was shot by Blackman – who told the court he believed the man was already dead – in a ‘moment of madness’ blamed on the acute stresses of the tour.

In his first interview, given in prison, Blackman, 41, told the Mail: ‘I made a split-second mistake, but I had been sent to a brutal battlefield to fight a war for my country. At the end of my trial, the Establishment lined up to portray me as evil, because it suited them … to show the world how politically correct we are. I have been made a scapegoat for all that went wrong there.’

Now a campaign spearheaded by legendary thriller writer Frederick Forsyth is mounting a fresh legal appeal to free Blackman - known as ‘Marine A’ after a painstaking Mail investigation revealed that evidence that might have resulted in a lesser charge of manslaughter was ‘deliberately withheld’.

A high-flying colonel who was blocked from telling the truth to the court martial called it ‘a failure of moral courage by the chain of command’. The colonel was so disgusted that he resigned his commission.

Also court martial panel members sent a message to Blackman – who is eligible for parole after eight years – apologising for the length of his sentence.